Essential Freeware

I have been doing an audit to see what free software I use on my computer. I was staggered at how vast the list is. All the following are programs I use regularly, in many cases could not do without. Often there is no commercial equivalent or the paid-for version costs way too much. In every case, these programs do an excellent job and come well within the "essential" category. Some of them just run in the background, like Java and Taskbar Shuffle, but are great add-ons nonetheless (in fact, much of what we now consider normal on the internet would be impossible without Java).
Security: Microsoft Security Essentials,
Threatfire, WinPatrol, Ad-Aware, CCleaner, Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware, Spybot.
System helps: Glary Undelete, PasswordFox, 7-Zip File Manager,Moffsoft Free Calc, Copernic Desktop Search, Taskbar Shuffle, TweakUI, Java.
Browser: Firefox. Firefox extensions/add-ons: Xmarks, Table2Clipboard, Firebug, FireFTP, DownloadHelper, Adblock Plus.
RSS feeds: RSS Bandit.
Word processing: Editpad lite, OpenOffice.org, Simple OCR.
PDF: Foxit Reader, Koolwire.com
Media players: GOM player, Media Jukebox, VLC Media Player.
Image editing: Irfanview, Pos Panorama Pro, MW Snap,
Photoscape, SmillaEnlarger.
Video: Free Video Converter, Photo Story 3, MovieMaker.
Audio: Audacity, free-midi-converter.com, Goldwave, mp3 workshop, Free Mp3 Wma Converter, CDex.
Design: Scribus, Fontview, PDF Fill – Writer and Tools.
Photo management: XnView.

Entertainment: Google Earth.

Uninstalling hard-to-get-rid-of programs

Some programs just refuse to uninstall properly from your computer, no matter what you try to do to get rid of them. Some programs you install never make it to the Windows Add/Remove control panel, others simply disappear from the list. Making things worse is that some well-known apps don't create uninstallers on your machine. For instance, AVG Free, the antivirus program, puts its uninstaller into the downloaded installation package -- something many users zap right after they have a successful install. So to uninstall AVG, you'd need to download and install the program again, then select uninstall from the installation options list. Steve Bass has some very helpful tips on how to deal with these nuisances.

File Properties

Sometimes it's helpful to know the properties of a particular file on your computer: eg, how large it is, where is the original file located if it's a shortcut, and so on. The usual way to find out is to right click on the file and then choose Properties from the dialogue box. Here's a simple shortcut: Alt-left click on the file, and it brings up the same dialogue box.
Incidentally, checking the properties of an email in your inbox can reveal some otherwise hard to find information, like addresses that are obscured in the "From" line. The Alt-click tip above doesn't work here, though - for that you have to right click on the file name.

Increase the number of image search results

Most search engines (eg, Google, Yahoo, etc) allow you to alter the number of search results that show up on each page, by going into Preferences and choosing a number. However, this does not apply to image searches. So Google gives you a stock 20 results per page, for instance, and that can't be changed. Bing, the new Microsoft engine, is more bizarre. It gives you every result on one screen, which you can continuously scroll down. The problem is, if there are millions of results, your computer is in for a very long download session. As an example, I searched for images related to "debt", and got more than 19-million results. There was no way to stop them all downloading except to quit the page. I don't think my broadband account would have stood that amount of downloading.
Fortunately, there is ONE search engine that allows you to alter the number of images displayed per page. It is called Imagery, and it is actually a front end that some enterprising person has constructed for the Google engine. Imagery allows you to choose to display 20, 40, 60, 80 or 100 images per page, and you can also choose other standard preferences such as file size, type, etc. It also gives good sized thumbnail views. Sadly for Internet Explorer users, it only works in Firefox - another reason to change browsers.

Office Tabs

Tabs are an absolutely essential part of my life when using Firefox. I can't imagine how I lived without them before they were introduced. I wish I could say the same about Microsoft Word. Instead, when I have multiple Word documents open, I have to fish among a piled up set of icons on the Task Bar. It should have been an obvious feature for Microsoft to incorporate in 2007. However, there is a free utility, Office Tabs, which does the job, and on my quick test does it well. It can also give you tabs in Excel and PowerPoint. There are a few points to be aware of: The software has been written by a Chinese techie, but an English version is available. A few users report problems with the feature, but mine works fine. And some people find that it pops up a dialogue for a video program. (Again, it doesn't on my machine.) I guess, like with most public domain software, it's user-beware, but the utility seems to outweigh the potential problems. If you have difficulties, you can always use Windows' System Restore to go back.

Pin recent documents, & Office Tabs

I'm astounded how often I discover obvious things that I had previously missed. Latest case in point: In the Microsoft Word "Recent Documents" list, you can pin a document so that it doesn't get bumped off. Just click on the little pin icon at the right of the document title. And deselect it when you no longer want the document on the list.

Adding additional places to the "save" dialogue

Here's a handy free utility to solve one of the frustrations of Windows and Microsoft Office. When you go to save a document, or to save a download file to your computer, the dialogue box has only five buttons on the left-hand Explorer-style bar. This bar is known as the Places Bar. Needless to say, the folder you most frequently want to save a file to is not among the five. The fix-it comes by way of PlacesBar Editor, which allows you to change the folders in the Explorer sidebar, or to additional folders in Office. It's very simple to use, and works well.